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There is a huge problem with people buying houses and leaving them empty in the hope of C.P.
It will bring house prices down as the amount of stock would be increased, another provision could be added to shops, either whole rows of shops could be utilised with low cost loans and assistance for the help of an architect to develop the accomodation.
If a property occupies 20,000 square feet is valued at £20 a square foot, that's a cheap house, add another £40,000 for renovation, that's still a cheap house.
A cheap house, that's offered employment to solicitors, bricklayers, plumbers, joiners, roofers and electricians, it improves the neighbourhoods involved, and it costs the taxpayer nothing.
Modeller, I agree with some of what you say, but not the sentiment.
130% mortgages were always a bad idea, they functioned on the assumption that the renovation would increase the value of the home to create equity in a growing market, it was a punt plainly prone to failure at some point.
Large deposits are tolerable in a stable to the point of static market, for this to occur you need higher interest rates to encourage savings for aspirational growth whilst keeping a check on inflationary pay rises, a difficult trick to pull off.
Dual incomes should be considered in the evaluation of a loan's validity, although i accept that one of the effects of equal working rights has been to raise prices to match, I can't pretend to know the answer to that one.
Rov, that's an interesting point, I don't know anyone living like that myself, but, during the boom we were led to believe that were thousands of people who couldn't find or afford a house to buy, so were are they living now?